The
top five issues cited by voters as “a top priority” this January were
the economy (85%), jobs (82%), terrorism (76%), social security (63%)
and education (61%).

Protecting the environment has fallen from
the tenth ranked top priority issue, cited by 56% of respondents in
January 2008, to just sixteenth this year with 41% of voters surveyed
considering it “a top priority”. The 15 point plunge occurred across
party and gender lines.

“Global warming” came in at the bottom of
top twenty priority list with the proportion of voters citing it as a
top priority sliding from 38% in January 2007, to 35% in January 2008
and now to 30% this year.

The economy (up 10 points) and jobs (up
21 points) made the biggest gains in the priorities list. The biggest
downgrades in addition to the environment were health care costs (down
10 points) and crime (down 8 points).

Republicans are already
moving to exploit the gap between voters apparent downgrading of the
environment as a concern and President Barack Obama’s positioning of
global warming as a priority in his inauguration speech.

Democrats
remain hopeful Obama can embed climate change initiatives in a bigger
energy package on the back of general concerns about the US energy
situation, which came in at sixth place (60%) in the survey.

There is some anecdotal evidence of the environment going off the boil, too.

At
a progressive panel discussion led by Democrat-identified blogger
Arianna Huffington in New York last week, for example, global warming
and the environment generally were barely mentioned by panellists or
audience members. Even a year ago it would likely have loomed large in
a left intelligentsia discussion of that kind.

The Australian
environment movement, which lacks any totemic wins since the Rudd
Government’s election, may need to rethink its strategy in light of
what US developments suggest lies ahead as the downturn hits home.

If
few
gains were made during the relatively benign year following the
Rudd Government’s election, without a change of tack the environment
movement’s dividends could remain paltry as the global financial
crisis and slowing Chinese economy fully impacts. New ways may have to
be devised for the coming harder times - and were probably needed
anyway.